Posts Tagged ‘James Harden’

It’s the time of the year in the NBA where the M.V.P. talk starts. For some reason this has been the week where everyone who supported Russell Westbrook earlier in the season have now turned their backs on him and are looking for other candidates for M.V.P. The other names that keep coming up are James Harden, LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard. So let’s take a look and see how these players match up.

Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder are 35-29 and currently holding on to the 7th spot in the Western Conference. In 64 games Westbrook averages 32.1 points per game, 10.5 rebounds per game and 10 assists per game. Westbrook is the leagues leading scorer and he is 3rd in assists he is also 12th in rebounding, but remember he’s a point guard. That’s right Westbrook is averaging a triple-double per game so far this season. The last player to average a triple-double in a season was Oscar Robertson who did in during the 1961-62 season for the Cincinnati Royals.

Harden’s Houston Rockets are 44-20 and are currently in 3rd place in the Western Conference. In 64 games Harden is averaging 29 points per game, 7.9 rebounds per game and 11.5 assists per game. Harden is the leagues 2nd leading scorer and is leading the NBA in assists. Harden is tied for 25th in rebounding.

James’ Cleveland Cavaliers are the top team in the Eastern Conference with a record of 42-20. James has played in 57 games this season and is averaging 26 points per game, 8.2 rebounds per game and 8.8 assists per game. James is the leagues 8th leading scorer. He is 4th in the league is assists and is tied for 22nd in rebounding.

Leonard’s San Antonio Spurs are 49-13 and in 2nd place in the Western Conference. Leonard averages 26.3 points per game, 3.4 assists per game and 6 rebounds a game. Leonard is the leagues 7th leading scorer. He is tied for 53rd in assists and is tied for 60th in rebounding. I’m sure you’ve noticed that with the exception of scoring Leonard’s stats don’t compare top the other M.V.P. candidates. While that may be the case Leonard is far and away the best defensive player out of the four candidates; so that should help his M.V.P. case.

Now it looks as even if Westbrook puts up the best numbers he’s not going to win the M.V.P. award and that’s even if he averages a triple-double. Since Oklahoma City isn’t really considered a threat to win the NBA title that will hurt Westbrook’s case even though it’s a regular season award. I’m not sold on the Rockets being a title contender either, but the team is much improved this season and Harden is being given the credit for that. I’m not sure why James is even in this conversation. Most people still consider him the best player in the NBA ; so I’m guessing that’s why his name keeps coming up, but he doesn’t deserve to win this award. Leonard is kind of a sleeper pick at this point, but he’s gained some support lately. San Antonio is always a title contender, but I’m not sure that Leonard’s stats are M.V.P. worthy especially when you compare him to the other candidates.

If I had a vote which I don’t I’d cast mine for Westbrook. What he’s doing is historic. Harden would be 2nd on my ballot with Leonard 3rd and James a distant 4th. When it’s all said and done look for Harden to walk away with the M.V.P. award when the voting comes out.

The Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 122-111 last night. Neither team is going to make the playoffs this season; so the importance of this game was would Dirk Nowitzki break the 30,000 point mark for his career in this game. Nowitzki came into the game needing 20 points to reach the 30,000 point mark. With 10:58 left in the 2nd quarter Nowitzki hit a jumper to reach the scoring milestone. Nowitzki became just the 6th player to reach the 30,000 point milestone. The other player to reach that mark are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant and Wilt Chamberlain. Nowitzki is in his 19th season and has said he plans on returning for a 20th; all with the Mavericks.

Nowitzki has played in 1377 career games. For his career he averages 21.8 points per game, 7.8 rebounds per game and 2.5 assists per game. Nowitzki is a 13 time All-Star, he was the M.V.P. for the 2006-07 season and was the finals M.V.P. in 2011 when the Mavericks won their only title over the Miami Heat, Dallas made the finals in the 2006-07 season, but lost to the Heat in the finals. Nowitzki is a sure bet to make the basketball Hall of Fame when his career is over. Don’t forget that Nowitzki was actually drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 9th pick in the 1998 draft. Nowitzki and Pat Garrity where traded to Dallas for Robert “Tractor” Traylor on draft night. Dallas had taken Traylor with the 6th pick of the draft.

NFL free agents can’t officially sign with teams until 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. Of course that isn’t going to stop reports from coming out on who’s going to go where. The first such report that came out has Brandon Marshall staying in New York, but moving from the Jets to the Giants. It’s being reported that Marshall will sign a two year $12 million dollar deal to join the Giants. Marshall had hoped that the Jets would grant him his release and they did saving $7.5 million dollars on their salary cap. There was some talk that the Jets and Marshall engaged in contract extension talks, but in the end the two sides parted ways. The Jets didn’t look for any type of trade for Marshall as the team considered it a “long shot” on getting a deal done. Marshall spent two seasons with the Jets with his first one being much more productive than his second one. Of course quarterback play has a lot to do with how a wide receiver is going to do and the Jets didn’t have very good quarterback play last season. Marshall should be a good fit for the second receiver slot behind Odell Beckham Jr. in the Giants offense. Marshall also gives Giants quarterback Eli Manning another target to throw to. With the release of Victor Cruz the Giants have found a solid veteran replacement for that wide receiver position. Of course by staying in New York Marshall will also be able to continue to do Inside the NFL.

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It took overtime, but the Houston Rockets where able to get past the Chicago Bulls 121-117 on Friday night. The Bulls played without Jimmy Butler; who has a bruised heel and is scheduled for an MRI to check for any damage. The Rockets built a 17 point lead in the 2nd quarter, but the Bulls came all the way back and had chances to win the game.

The Bulls built an early five point lead at 8-3, but Houston scored 10 of the next 12 points in the game to take a 13-10 lead. The teams where tied one time and traded the lead three more times in the quarter before a Rajon Rondo 3-pointer with five seconds left gave the Bulls a 26-24 lead after one quarter.

The game was tied twice early in the 2nd quarter before the Rockets started building a lead. Houston was holding a two point lead at 35-33 when they went on a 17 to 2 run to open up a 17 point lead at 52-35. The Bulls spent that final five minutes of the quarter trying to cut into the Rockets lead. The Bulls did manage to get the Houston lead down to 11 by the end of the quarter as Chicago went into halftime trailing 60-49.

Chicago started the 3rd quarter by scoring 12 of the quarters first 14 points and the Rockets lead was down to just one point at 62-61. The Rockets pushed back a little and built the lead back to four points before the Bulls actually took the lead back at 73-72. The teams swapped the lead four more times in the quarter and y the end of three quarters it was the Bulls who had a 81-79 lead heading into the final quarter.

The Biggest lead the Bulls could build in the 4th quarter was eight points and they took that lead with 4:52 left to play and it looked like Chicago might be able to pull off a big road upset. The Bulls seemed to have an answer for every Houston basket, but with 3:05 left in the game there was a terrible foul call on Michael Carter-Williams that sent James Harden to the free throw line for two shots and it seemed to change the momentum of the game. It was also Carter-Williams 6th foul of the game. Harden hit both free throws and after the Bulls did manage to score right after that the Rockets scored the final eight points of the game and the teams where headed to overtime tied at 108 apiece.

The Rockers went right to the lead in overtime scoring the first five points to take a 113-108 lead. The Bulls worked there way back into the game and where able to tie the score at 115 all. A Dwayne Wade jumper gave the Bulls there first lead in overtime at 117-116 with 1:28 left to play. The Bulls weren’t able to score again after taking the lead and Houston was able to pull away scoring the final six points of the game to take a 121-117 victory.

James Harden led the Rockets and the game in scoring with 42 points, rebounds with 12 and assists with 9. Clint Capela had 14 points while Trevor Ariza added 10 points. Eric Gordon came off the Houston bench to score 21 points.

Michael Carter-Williams was the Bulls leading scorer getting 23 points before fouling out. Taj Gibson had 20 points while Dwayne Wade added 19 points. Doug McDermott came off the Bulls bench to score 12 points while Nikola Mirotic and Paul Zipser also hit double digits off the Bulls bench scoring 11 points apiece. Robin Lopez led the Bulls with 11 rebounds while Wade and Carter-Williams each handed out 6 assists to tie for the team lead.

With the win the Rockets improved to 37-17 on the season. Houston gets three days off before they host the 20-32 Orlando Magic on Tuesday night. The loss knocked Chicago back under .500 at 25-26. The Bulls are 1-1 on there current road trip and they’ll get a couple of days off before they head to Sacramento to face the 19-31 Kings on Monday night.

Week 10 just wrapped up in the NFL and here’s how we did with our picks. Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy tied for the lead in Week 10 at 9-4 while Dan the Man and I stumbled under .500 at 6-8. Schaumburg Stu is beginning to pull away on the season with a 92-55 overall record. Dan the Man is holding onto 2nd place at 85-62, but Mr. Fantasy has cut his lead down to 4 games as Mr. Fantasy is 81-66 overall. Sadly I’m at the rear of the pack after 1o weeks at 78-69. Hopefully Week 11 will be my week.

If you’re a Dallas Cowboys fan do you want to see them stay with Dak Prescott at quarterback or would you like to see them turn the job back over to a healthy Tony Romo? Romo met with the media yesterday and said of Prescott “He’s earned the right to be our quarterback”. Under Prescott the Cowboys have the best record in the NFL at 8-1. Prescott has thrown for 2339 yards and is completing 66.8% of his passes. Prescott has thrown 14 touchdown passes and just 2 interceptions. The only starting quarterback with less interceptions this season is Tom Brady and he missed the first 4 games of the season. Sam Bradford and Russell Wilson each have 2 interceptions as well. While Prescott has been sacked 13 times he also averages 4.0 yards per carry and has scored 4 rushing touchdowns. Romo hasn’t played a game this season and only played in 4 games last season because of injury. The Cowboys where 12-4 back in 2014 when Romo started all 16 games that season. Romo is in his 12th season with the Cowboys. Romo has 34,154 career yards, 247 career touchdowns and 117 career interceptions in 149 games. It can be a tough decision especially since it’s a plyer who’s had success in his career and lost his job due to an injury, but it looks as though it’s Prescott’s job. Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones even said that Prescott “won’t be looking over his shoulder”. Which pretty gave the stamp of approval for Prescott to stay in the starting role. Prescott and the Cowboys put there 8-game winning streak on the line this week as they host the AFC North leading Baltimore Ravens Sunday. This appears to be the first game that Romo will be active for as the back up quarterback.

NASCAR is down to it’s final race of the season. On Sunday they’ll run the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. There are four drivers left in The Chase for the Sprint Cup. It will be Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch racing for the championship. Johnson has 6 Sprint Cup championship on his record while Kyle Busch is the defending Sprint Cup champion; his only championship. Edwards and Logano are looking for there first Sprint Cup title. Johnson, Edwards and Logano all won their way into the championship race while Busch got in a points. On the season Johnson and Busch won 4 races while Logano and Edwards won 3 races. Logano got the won last week at Phoenix International Raceway, but will that give him some momentum coming into the final race. Johnson has the championship experience to rely on. Busch was here last season and got the win to take the title. Edwards was close to winning the title in 2011. He lost a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart for the championship. Does it look as though one driver has an advantage coming into Sunday’s race? We’ll find out on Sunday if Kyle Busch defends his title, if Jimmie Johnson picks up his 7th title or if Joey Logano or Carl Edwards can pick up there first Sprint Cup championship.

Steven Stamkos the captain of the Tampa Bay Lighting and one of the top players in the NHL may miss some time with a low body injury. Stamkos scored early in the Lightings 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings last night before exiting the game. Stamkos left the game in the 1st period after he collided with Detroit’s Gustav Nyquist along the boards. After the collision Stamkos didn’t return to the game. Tampa Bay’s head coach said Stamkos “will be evaluated tomorrow”. Stamkos is a 6-time All-Star and was off to a good start to the 2016-17 season. Stamkos’ goal was his 9th of the season and he has 20 points in 17 games. The Lighting have had to play without Stamkos before as he played in just one of Tampa Bay’s playoff games last season after having surgery for a blood clot on April 4th.

While Stamkos did get a goal in Tampa Bay’s 4-3 win last night. Nikita Kucherov scored 2 goals and an assisted on another while defenseman Nikita Nesterov scored the other goal and had an assist. Vladislav Namestnikov also had 2 assists for the Lighting. Ben Bishop stopped 25 of the 28 shots he faced last night. Frans Nielsen, Ryan Sproul and Henrik Zetterberg had the Red Wings goals in the loss. Petr Mrazek stopped 18 of the 22 shots he faced in the game.

The Los Angeles Clippers are off to the best start in the Western Conference at 10-1 while the Cleveland Cavaliers are leading the eastern Conference at 9-1.

While it is very early in the season DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors is off to a hot start averaging 33.2 points per game (PPG). Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder is averaging 32 PPG. Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans is averaging 30.5 PPG. James Harden of the Houston Rockets is averaging 30.3 PPG and Damien Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers rounds out the Top 5 scores with 29.8 PPG.

Hasan Whiteside of the Miami Heat leads the NBA in rebounding grabbing 15.9 rebounds per game (RPG). Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons is next with 14.3 RPG. Marcin Gortat of the Washington Wizards and DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers are each getting 12.4 RPG while Dwight Howard now with the Atlanta Hawks grabs 12.3 RPG.

Harden tops all players in assists with 12.6 assists per game (APG). Westbrook is next on the list handing out 9.9 APG. LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers is at 9.6 APG. Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers is giving out 8.5 APG while John Wall of the Washington Wizards is handing out 8.3 APG.

Hopefully some of these guys are on either your favorite NBA team or your fantasy team.

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There are very few blockbuster player for player trades in the NFL; so when the Philadelphia Eagles traded LeShon McCoy one of the top running backs in the NFL to the Buffalo Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso it caught me a bit by surprise. McCoy rushed for 1319 yards and 5 touchdowns last season on 312 carries. He also caught 28 passes for 155 yards. Alonso missed the entire 2014 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), but is expected to be ready to go for the 2015 season. 2013 was Alonso rookie season where he had 87 tackles, assisted on 72 other while picking for 4 passes, recovering 2 fumbles and forcing 1 fumble. He also had 2 quarterback sacks. Looking at this trade it may be one of those that turns out to benefit both teams. Philadelphia gets some salary cap room and if they cut linebacker DeMeco Ryans as it’s being reported they will it will open up a little over $14 million dollars in salary cap room for the Eagles. Buffalo has a new head coach in Rex Ryan and with Fred Jackson getting up there in age and C.J. Spiller never really becoming the running back the Bills had hoped he’d be when drafted McCoy gives them the go to running back that Ryan likes to have. I did see some reports out there that say this is the first move in the Eagles going out and getting Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota in the upcoming draft. Mariota won’t be on the board when the Eagles 1st round pick comes up at #20; so if he’s their guy they’re going to have to find a way to move up to get him. There’s a chance the New York Jets might take him with the 6th pick. The St. Louis Rams pick 10th and they might be looking for a quarterback and then there’s always the chance that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take Mariota with the #1 pick in the draft. You’d have to guess it will cost the Eagles Nick Foles that #20 pick and more to move up high enough to get Mariota. Then the question becomes is he worth that? Even though he’s familiar with coach Chip Kelly’s offense. Is he a franchise type of quarterback? The Eagles also seem to have quite a few needs on defense and while they’ll have that extra salary cap money some of it will go to re-signing wide receiver Jeremy Maclin. It looked like the Eagles would address their defenses issues in the draft, but if they make a deal for Mariota how many of those draft picks would be included in that deal. Don’t forget that the Bills may not be sold on E.J. Manuel as their quarterback, but remember the Bills dealt their 1st round pick to the Cleveland Browns; so they could move up and select wide receiver Sammy Watkins in 2014. Free agents can start signing with teams on March 10th; so the NFL off-season is getting ready to roll.

So who are you picking for NBA MVP for this season? I’ve heard a lot of talk about this the last week or so and it seems to have been narrowed down to four players. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, James Harden of the Houston Rockets, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder and of course LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Curry is averaging 23.9 points per game (PPG) is handing out 7.8 assists per game (APG) and leads the NBA. averaging 2.1 steals per game. Curry also leads the N.B.A. in 3-pointers attempted with 454 and 3-pointers made with 187. Don’t forget the Warriors also have the best record in the NBA at 46-12. James Harden is leading the NBA in scoring averaging 27.1 PPG he’s handing out 6.9 APG He leads the NBA in free throws made (492) and free throws attempted (568) and has taken the most shots in the league this season with 1062. The Rockets are in 2nd place at 41-19 a 1 1/2 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies in the Southwest division of the Western conference. Westbrook is averaging 26.5 PPG and handing out 8.1 APG The draw back with Westbrook maybe the fact that he’s missed 15 games so far this season and right now is recovering from surgery to repair facial fractures; so that missed game total may go up. The Thunder are 33-27 and hanging on to the 8th spot in the Western conference. You’d have to think if they don’t make the playoffs Westbrook may drop out of the MVP race. James may be in the same area as Westbrook is as he’s missed 11 games so far this season and you wonder if that total will go up as he takes games off getting ready for the playoff run. James does average 26.2 PPG he is also handing out 7.2 APG he does lead the NBA in field goals made with 479. The Cavaliers are in 2nd place at 38-24 and just a 1/2 behind the Chicago Bulls in the Central division of the Eastern conference. The votes are supposed to be turned in before the playoffs start; so that shouldn’t impact the voting. If I’m picking right now I’ll take Curry as the MVP with Harden 2nd, James 3rd with Westbrook 4th. How do you got?

We’ve been previewing the upcoming baseball season on Sports Time Radio by talking to different bloggers who cover the teams. Yesterday we had Brian Helberg from HaloHangout.com on with us to discuss the Los Angeles Angels 2015 season. On Friday we have a loaded line up of guests to talk baseball. Tony Fischer from HeatWaved.com will joins us at the start of the podcast (9:00 p.m.) to talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks 2015 season. At 9:30 p.m. Scott Andres from LasordsLair.com comes back on the podcast to talk about the Los Angeles Dodgers 2015 season. Mark O’Neill from AroundtheFoghorn.com joins us again (10:00 p.m.) to preview the San Francisco Giants 2015 season. Will wrap up the night with Billy Brost from FriarsOnBase.com talking San Diego Padres baseball starting at 10:30 p.m. It will be a full night of baseball on the podcast; so the season must be getting close to starting.